Fallin'
by pikachu203
Summary: Gift! Fic for cloudyWingless. One-shot. Axel and Roxas are part of a society where people have powers. Roxas was supposed to learn how to fly when he was 14, but he's 15 and he still trying to get off the ground. But when his older brother cloud falls into a coma after a serious accident, will he be able to learn? Or will he be too scared of falling? AkuRoku


**Fallin'**

** Gift! Fic for cloudyWingless. For the record, this story is for her because she lost a family member… I don't write yoai on a regular basis and will probably not write for this specific pair any time soon, if I write for it ever again. The idea for this story came from the show tune "Fallin'"**

** Secondary shout out to Blueskies23, who has also been having a rough time lately.**

** Feel better guys, okay?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own kingdom hearts.**

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**(Roxas's POV)**

"_I remember being little and running around the fields with my older brother and pretending that I could fly. My older brother would laugh and lift me up above his head and let me feel the wind blow through my hair and laugh and yell at him to put me down. I knew our secret even back then. Our family's power was flight. Someday, when I turned 14, I knew that I was going to be able to soar across the sky with the rest of them, floating free. He was six years older than me, he was, but I was 5 years old, so young and naïve, dreaming of Neverland, and sunsets, and bursts of warm comforting fire in fireplaces._

_ Of course back then, I hadn't a care in the world, or a worry about my mother, my father, and my brothers. Not a care at all about romance or friendship or school or anything. No worries… Not like now…"_

I snapped out of it slowly, remembering where I was. I was at school, in the guidance office, and the school psychologist was looking over me carefully. He frowned, his blonde eyebrows forming a concerned line on his slightly wrinkled forehead. Ansem sighed, "Are you going to be okay to go back to classes now?"

I nodded tremulously, "Y-yeah…"

I slowly sat up, shaking my head. It was nice to get a break from all the grief and reminisce about something you lost without people judging you. He handed me a small tissue. I gently pressed it up to my cheek, feeling the wetness there. I hadn't realized that I'd been crying. Ansem frowned, giving me a pat on the head, "Think about what your brother would want."

I sighed softly, "My older brother said he wanted was to see the day I find out how to fly."

Ansem nodded, "I see. He wanted to see the day that you found you powers."

I nodded, "Yeah…"

Ansem sighed, "Why don't you go eat lunch with your friends? And you don't know that Roxas, he could be back up at any time."

I nodded, and carefully walked out, putting in earphones and turning on some loud music on my I-pod, trying to ignore the stares of the other magical kids in the hallway. I saw some of the girls whispering as they changed their hair color from pink to blonde and back again. A bully paused mid throwing a kid into a locker, staring in my direction sympathetically. No one had any idea what I was going through.

I walked quietly to the cafeteria, sitting down at the table my friends and I always sat at alone, not even bothering to get lunch. I put my head down on the table, feeling choked up but not wanting to have anyone see me cry again.

I felt a pat on my head, "Hey Roxas."

I looked up carefully and saw Axel staring down at me. I smiled, "Hey, Axel."

He ruffled my hair, "It'll be okay, buddy."

He sat down next to me, lacing his fingers into mine under the table. I blushed slightly, yeah, we were in a relationship, but it hadn't gone very far. We hadn't even kissed yet, we were both so unsure of this relationship. I was unsure of relationships in general, and Axel had never been with a guy before like this. So we'd decided to take it slow so that we could get used to it. He frowned, "Roxas…"

"Yeah?" I asked quietly.

He frowned quietly, "What happened?"

* * *

(Axel's POV)

Roxas sighed, "Okay I guess I can tell you…"

He paused, taking a deep shuddering breath before starting to talk, trailing off at some points in his sentence when he didn't want to keep explaining what had happened because it hurt too much to remember, "Last night, when Cloud was coming home from work… He got hit by a car. He still won't wake up… The people at the hospital said that he may never wake up…"

I squeezed his hand when his voice ran off and asked, "Where's Xion?"

Roxas muttered, "Xion's at home with her older sister Tifa."

"Ah," I replied calmly, glancing over to the table where his twin used to sit across the room, but there were only two people who I didn't know there and his seat was empty, "So where's Ventus?"

He lifted his head slightly again, choking out, "In the hospital, with Cloud…"

He sniffled slightly and I could tell that he was holding in a lot of tears behind his eyes. "Roxas," I muttered, frowning at the severity of this situation and trying to force myself to be relatively serious; which was a lot harder than you'd think, "I think it's very brave of you to be here today. You shouldn't have though; you should be at home, resting, or maybe trying to relax. When someone close to you gets hurt, you should do what you can until it's out of your hands, and then life will make it better, got it memorized?"

No response. I was just about to speak up and apologize when he finally found the words to say, "Do you always have to give philosophical advice and then add that dumb catchphrase of yours at the end?"

I chuckled at that response, knowing that he must be feeling better now that he was talking like himself again, "Maybe," I paused for a second trying to think of anything else that would cheer him up; "I'll be back in a second."

I ran into the kitchen area where we bought our lunches from and stood in front of the freezer, searching for what I wanted to find for both of us. My eyes scanned the frigid container and saw them. I grabbed two, dropped the money onto the counter where the cashier was and made my way back to the table.

Roxas's head was back down on the table again and he looked exhausted and despondent. I tapped his shoulder lightly, handing him ice cream. He frowned, "You don't need to spend money on me."

"Uh, yeah, I do; you're upset and you need some comfort," I smirked, biting off a chunk of my own, the salty and sweet flavors colliding perfectly in my mouth, "And besides, ice cream makes everything better."

He smiled for a second before starting to eat his. We sat like that for a few more minutes, the seconds ticking away, listening to the sounds of other people at other tables rambling on about what television show they liked and who was dating who, and how much they hated the History teacher. I picked up bits and pieces of everyone's conversations, but never enough to understand what they were talking about. After about five minutes of sitting like that, I asked, "Hey Roxas, do you want to go out after school?"

He glanced up, slightly surprised, and I continued, "You know, just you and me, hanging out, getting your mind off of stuff."

He was quiet and softly asked, "You mean like a date?"

I stopped, pausing and thinking about that for a second, "Well, yeah, I guess it is."

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(Roxas's POV)

The two of us went to the clock tower after school. I sat down, but not too close to the edge, staring off at the setting sun. It was 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and the sun was already setting in Twilight Town. _Dumb winter._ I didn't like this time of year. At all. It was too cold and the light faded way too early. I wished that everything was back to normal and that it was summer vacation again, where no one was dying and nothing bad was happening in the world. Where it could be warm every day. Warm like one of Axel's hugs…

Speaking of Axel… He was sitting right on the railing, staring into the distance and leaning over it slightly, trying to see the sun a little better. It was like he wasn't scared of falling at all! I'm jealous of people like that, people who aren't afraid to die.

He looked back at me, "Do you know why I brought you out here today?"

I shook my head, "No not really," I stood up from where I was sitting with my back against the wall and said, "But I guess that you're trying to comfort me."

He nodded, "That's definitely part of it," he turned back to looking at the pink painted sky, "but that's not all of it."

I was starting to like this little game, "Okay, then, why did you bring me out here?"

He turned back suddenly, turning on the railing so he was completely facing me, "We're going to teach you out to fly."

I froze, my eyes widening, "Here? No… Not here, not now…"

He reached out his hand, "C'mon, Roxas, you're 15! Your brother was flying at 14 and I've been using my powers for years. You need to be fledged like a bird from the nest if we want to do this right," I took a step back, now pressed against the cool stones of the wall, trying to stay as far away from the edge as I could, "Wouldn't Cloud want to wake up to find out that you finally learned how to fly?"

I stopped at the mention of my brother, still dead to the world out there. He was right, and it was enough for me to take a trembling step forward. He frowned, still holding out his hand to me, "What's wrong? Don't you trust me? Or are you just scared of heights?"

I froze at that statement, shaking my head, "No… I'm not afraid of heights. I'm afraid of falling."

He laughed, "That's all? Then don't worry, I'll catch you."

I quietly asked, "You will?"

He took my hand in his, squeezing it lightly, "Of course I will."

I stared at his emerald green eyes for a moment, trying to decide whether or not I could trust him, but all they showed me was the same look of mischief they always had, depicting perfectly what a wise-guy he was. I nodded, "Okay, I trust you."

He replied, "Good, now stand on the railing."

I complied with his request, standing on the stone railing, my legs trembling still out of the fear that he was going to drop me, and I was going to fall. He sighed, "Don't be scared."

I nodded, trying to steel my courage for the jump but finding I had none left. He counted slowly, "1…"

_I'm horrified… What if I fall? What if you drop me?_

"2…"

_Okay… Come on Roxas, you can do this, you have to do this!_

"3!"

I jumped off of the side of the building and for one long horrifying moment, I free feel through the air, the only thing keeping me from spattering to the side walk being Axel's hand in mine. Then everything changed. Suddenly the sensation of falling to the ground vanished and I felt like I was floating buoyantly on the surface of water.

Except I wasn't floating on water. I was levitating in midair. I opened my eyes and saw that I had floated up so I was exactly on level with Axel. He smiled at me, "I told you, you could do it."

I smiled back and the two of us leaned in. I kissed him gently, and it was one of the most amazing things I had ever felt. It was an incredible sensation, like every emotion in the world was threatening to burst out of me at once, I wanted to cry and smile and scream, all because of the sensation of those lips touching mine.

Of course, that all had to be ruined by the sound of my phone ringing loudly in my pocket. I sighed and reached back, looking at the name of the person calling me: _7__th__ Heaven._ Axel groaned slightly in annoyance, "Who is it?"

"It's Tifa," I muttered not knowing what to think.

My older brother was the one who changed her caller ID on my cell phone to that, and I wasn't sure why. Axel looked at me seriously, "I thought she was in the hospital with Cloud."

"She is…" I replied before picking it up, "Hello? It's Roxas."

She was happy and excited and I could hear her freaking out over the phone, "Roxas he's awake!"

"Wha… What?" I asked, suddenly surprised and happy, and so shocked I nearly dropped like a rock to the pavement.

She said it again, just as excited as the first time, "Roxas, Cloud's awake! He's going to be okay!"

It settled into my head and I smiled, just about ready to blast off into the stratosphere shouting my joyous victories to the world. She continued, "Where are you anyway?"

I smiled over at Axel, "Oh, I'm just out with my boyfriend."

He smiled back and she continued, "Oh, you mean Axel? Tell him I said hi! Anyway, he wants to talk to you, come on over."

"Right," I said, "And I have something to show him too."

She giggled lightly, and I'd never heard her this happy before in my life, "Okay, Roxas, just hurry over."

I nodded, "Bye!"

I hung up and cheered, punching my fists in the air happily, "Yes!"

Axel laughed, "Come on back down, there are people waiting for you."

I landed next to him and jumped down off the railing to the platform behind it, "We have to go see him."

"So, you're not afraid to fly anymore?" he asked.

"Of course not," I replied, "because I know that you'll be there to catch me if I fall."

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**The End**

** Well, I hope that was okay… I haven't written anything with yoai in it for months…**

** Anyway, feel free to leave a review, but please don't flame.**

**-Pikachu203**


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